today: Sunday, January 31, 2 PM

a zoom book talk with Jamin Wells

In his first book, SHIPWRECKED, Coastal Disasters and the Making of The American Beach, Jamin Wells shows that disasters have not only bedeviled the American beach--they created it.

Though the American beach is now one of the most commercialized, contested, and engineered places on the planet, few people visited or called it home at the beginning of the nineteenth century. By the twentieth century, the American beach had become the summer encampment of presidents, a common destination for millions of citizens, and the site of rapidly growing beachfront communities. Shipwrecked tells the story of this epic transformation, arguing that coastal shipwrecks themselves changed how Americans viewed, used, and inhabited the shoreline. Read more here.

This program is presented in partnership with the Henry Ferguson Museum.

When: today - Sunday, Jan 31, 2021 2 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Please click the link to join the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82789556859

Webinar ID: 827 8955 6859

The online NLMS library exhibition S. S. Tasco: New London's Plucky Salvage Ship illustrates many shipwrecks, above. Built in New London in 1907, in 1908 the screw steamship Tasco was registered to the T.A. Scott Company (hence its name: TASCO), as a rescue and salvage vessel, based in New London. From 1908 to 1914 the Tasco took part in the rescue or salvage of nearly 150 wrecked ships along the east coast of the United States from as far north as Maine and south to Key West.

Seamen of Color: Living and Sailing from the Port of New London, 1640-1880

a zoom talk with historian Sandi Brewster Walker

Sandi Brewster-Walker, chair and acting executive director of the Long Island Indigenous People Museum & Research Institute, and NLMS trustee, will give a talk on the people of color whaling captains and crew on all sides of the Long Island Sound.

Ms Brewster-Walker will highlight the genealogies and experiences of these men, who hunted the whale during the years (1790-1860), their boarding houses, churches, and lives on shore. She also will discuss the types of whaling vessels, the journey destinations, shipwrecks, and desertions.  

Sandi Brewster-Walker will begin her talk with information about the seamen of color onboard the ship/bark Merrimac(k) during her 5th thru 10th voyages to hunt the whale!

painting by Marek Ruzyk

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Reid MacCluggage Black Maritime History Scholarship Competition -- & the last!

Next year, we're renaming the writing contest: Reid MacCluggage - People of Color - Maritime History Scholarship Competition, to reflect inclusion of all people of color: Black, Native, Cape de Verdean, Portuguese, etc., a diverse multicultural group of seamen in the context of maritime history.

High School Juniors & Seniors, including from the Maritime Science Magnet School, may apply by writing an original essay, short story, poem, play, movie script or Novella about the Multicultural experience in the maritime world for the chance to win a $1000 scholarship. Download the application pdf.

Sponsored by the New London Maritime Society. photo: Emma Vlaun, 2019 winner.

Early on a fine morning in July of 1844, the ship Merrimac left New London harbor to begin a voyage that would last many months and take its crew halfway around the world in pursuit of whales. But, owing to a lack of wind, the Merrimac had to start its journey by being towed out to sea by a steam boat. So begins the 155 page manuscript that was given to the New London Maritime Society in 2020. It chronicles the travels of the Merrimac from 1844 to 1847, and then continues on another whaler, the General Williams, in 1852. 

And what an exciting story it is! There are the frantic whale chases followed by the tedious task of cutting and boiling. The unidentified author observes the USS Constitution in the harbor in Hawaii and walks the streets of Sydney, Australia. There are stops at exotic ports of call such as Pitcairn Island, some fifty years after its settlement by the mutineers of the Bounty. But there also were long, boring stretches at sea occasionally enlivened with welcome breaks to “gam” with other whaling ships, as well as moments of tension and threatened violence among the crew. And, throughout the narrative, he longs to be with his beloved wife.

Nearly all of the transcribed text of the manuscript can now be read online thanks to the efforts of our many volunteer scriveners. As more of the text is revealed, we are learning more about life aboard a whaler. We have found many clues to the probable identity of the writer, and there is more to be discovered. Stay tuned for more revelations!

Below, "The Wreckers' print is reproduced on a large canvas and displayed at NL's Union Railroad Station. It is there on loan from the NL Maritime Society.